The Public Prosecutor in Faro has now charged 29 suspects with corruption, fraud and criminal association.
The defendants include a court official who is accused of slipping minimum price details to others for vehicles due to be auctioned off by the State so bids could be lodged at just over the lowest acceptable price, or just over any other bids.
Among the defendants are 11 businessmen, including three in the car trade, and "an accountant, a civil servant and a finance director."
"In addition to dozens of crimes of forgery and active corruption, one defendant has been charged with more than 150 crimes of passive corruption," states the indictment.
Also charged is a firm of consultants, an estate agency and a car sales company.
According to the indictment, 'three defendants, with special knowledge of the credit mechanisms for the purchase of cars, set up a fraudulent scheme to obtain high monetary rewards."
"They have, in some cases, used forged income documents and documents from third-party vehicles, that duped financial institutions to grant credit that later they could not recover," the Public Prosecutor added.
Some of the defendants will used "insider information on whether or not property purchase offers had been received in court and their amounts," allowing them 'to submit tenders just above the minimum, in the case of no other tenders, or a slightly higher amount, if there were any other bids."
The accused court official is alleged to have sold information and documents to third parties obtained through his privileged access to the court database.
